Assessing the effectiveness of the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge

Each year we create 141 million tonnes of plastic packaging globally; the production, use and disposal of these materials amassing roughly 1.8 billion tonnes of CO₂e emissions. Of this packaging, one third subsequently leaks into the surrounding environment, causing untold environmental damage in the process.

Needing to find a solution to this increasingly critical issue, in 2018 WRAP announced the  UK 2025 Plastics Pact. Furthermore, in support of the UK’s drive for clean growth and industrial decarbonisation, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) established the Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging (SSPP) Challenge, which would also support business R&D towards achieving Plastic Pact targets.  This £60 million programme launched in 2019 – delivered over six years and completed in March 2025 – represents the largest and most ambitious UK government investment in sustainable plastic packaging research and innovation to date.

Throughout its lifespan, the SSPP Challenge supported a total of 90 diverse projects through a combination of eight competitive funding competitions and a series of direct funding awards.

What is the UK Plastics Pact?

The UK Plastics Pact sought to drive changes in the way we use plastic packaging, including targets to eliminate problematic (or unnecessary) single-use plastic; aiming for 100% of plastics packaging to be reusable, recyclable or compostable; looking to ensure that at least 70% of plastics packaging is effectively recycled or composted; and pushing for all plastic packaging to include 30% recycled content on average.

Evaluating the effectiveness of the SSPP Challenge

With any government investment on this scale, it is paramount to ensure that value for money has been achieved and that the objectives of the challenge have been met.

To this end, evaluation specialists Winning Moves (now trading as GC Insight) and Resource Futures, as material resources experts, were awarded the contract through competitive tender by UKRI to provide independent, evidence-based scrutiny of the programme. In this third phase, the focus was on evaluating the effectiveness of the Challenge in achieving its aims and assessing whether its investments resulted in positive economic and environmental impacts.

The multi-year three-phase evaluation started in 2020. This third phase evaluation process started in 2023 and took place over 18 months, with a multi-modal methodology collecting both primary and secondary evidence, which was rigorously analysed using a theory-based approach.

What is a ‘theory-based approach’?

A theory-based approach involves evaluating the Challenge with reference to a Theory of Change (ToC), setting out: 1) the intended outcomes and impacts; and 2) how the Challenge would achieve these outcomes and impacts (i.e. the potential causal chains’)

Both successful and unsuccessful applicants to the SSPP Challenge were interviewed as part of the evaluation process, providing insight on how the programme contributed to addressing plastic packaging waste problems.

A wide range of SSPP stakeholders, sector experts, international experts and UKRI staff were also interviewed; this helped to build an understanding of the contextual operating environment and general awareness of SSPP as a programme.

The information gathered from these interviews was complemented by secondary data evidence: this included reviewing and analysing data held by UKRI, web-scraping and secondary research of media coverage around the SSPP Challenge, and desk research on applicant organisations.

Assessing effectiveness

As part of the evaluation process, Resource Futures leant on its in-house expertise in plastic packaging, circular economy, carbon modelling and environmental impact assessment to estimate the environmental impact of the SSPP Challenge and inform the evidence on the evolving policy landscape.

Alongside this, Winning Moves carried out a challenge-level contribution assessment, a project-level contribution assessment, an economic impact analysis and cost effectiveness analysis.

Taken together, the Winning Moves and Resource Futures teams delivered a robust, evidence-led evaluation of the SSPP Challenge built on both quantitative and qualitative data and their institutional knowledge and expertise.

This evaluation demonstrated the extent to which UK Government funding through the SSPP Challenge across all stages of innovation has unlocked:

• A significant uplift in research and innovation efforts
• A positive contribution to global environmental targets
• Greater levels of collaboration across value chains
• Increased recognition of UK expertise internationally
• High levels of additional research and innovation investment beyond the programme

The environmental element of the evaluation, conducted by Resource Futures, shows reductions of more than 32 kilotonnes of CO₂e greenhouse gas emissions achieved by December 2024 as a result of the SSPP Challenge through more than 18 kilotonnes of virgin, fossil-based plastic being avoided and 21.5 kilotonnes of plastic packaging being recycled and kept in circulation.

These evaluations are conservative as many projects will generate impact beyond the closure of the Challenge and beyond the lifetime the UK Plastics Pact. By 2030, as much as 1.6 million tonnes of CO₂e emission reductions may have been realised as a direct result of the SSPP programme (this figure is based on an estimate of nearly 230 kilotonnes of virgin plastics no longer being produced, and 600 kilotonnes of plastic packaging being recycled).

Beyond purely environmental benefits, the SSPP Challenge has provided a significant boost to the UK economy. Winning Moves conservative calculations of revenue suggest gains of over £20 million by December 2024, nearly all of this achieved by projects that would not have gone ahead without the Challenge. Meanwhile, a further £392 million is predicted to be generated between 2025 and 2030 as a consequence of SSPP. In terms of value for money, for every pound spent as part of the SSPP Challenge at the time of the evaluation, ther has been a further £8.50 leveraged towards the development and roll out of Challenge-funded technologies.

While many of the innovations arising from SSPP are yet to realise their full market potential, SSPP Challenge funded recycling capacity that is now operational or awaiting commissioning is expected to contribute 102,350 tonnes of UK recycling capacity by 2030. If roll-out plans for funded recycling projects come to fruition, the SSPP Challenge could contribute towards a further 445,000 tonnes of UK recycling capacity per annum.

The full report can be downloaded from the UKRI website.